Passionate Enlightenment

The crowning cultural achievement of medieval India, Tantric Buddhism is known in the West primarily for the sexual practices of its adherents, who strive to transform erotic passion into spiritual ecstasy. Historians of religion have long held that the enlightenment thus attempted was for men only, and that women in the movement were at best marginal and subordinated and at worst degraded and exploited. Miranda Shaw argues to the contrary, presenting extensive new evidence of the outspoken and independent female founders of the Tantric movement and their creative role in shaping its distinctive vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality.

This book is amazing. Shaw describes the content of the Tantric texts starting from an awareness of women's full participation in creating Tantric buddhism as a religious system. She reads the texts through the eyes of who the participants in Tantra really were and uncovers a ton of material about visualization practices, gender relations, enlightenment, and relationships between men and women. She is very sensitive to the interplay between religious texts, awareness practices, and social realities and really talks about Tantra as a religious construction meant to bring awareness within a particular social setting (a setting which is not that unfamiliar in certain tragic respects-- ie patriarchy). It was extremely satisfying to be introduced to the concept of "dakinis" with as much depth and poetry as she brings to her discussion.

I used a lot of the images and text in her book to do my own visualizations, with very powerful results in my own life. I think these Tantric buddhists are really on to something.

I am in a feminist episcopal community and a lot of her discussion about the way the metaphysics and theology of Tantra supported female enlightenment and full participation by women in this religious community, in a context of patriarchy, was illuminating. I can see in our own Christian community many of the dynamics she describes and this book helped shed light on various strategies for engaging those dynamics.

Much respect for the proud and fierce women who created the dakini images of Tantra-- and much respect for Miranda Shaw for writing with such depth and passion about such an important religious accomplishment. The level of commitment that was required to write a book with this kind of substance is amazing to contemplate. Thank you Dr. Shaw for bringing the fruits of your research to light, for the benefit of others.

Many of the books I have read on Tantra are basically garbage. This one, however, is that jewel that makes it worth while sifting through the garbage. It is well written, well researched, and can be understood by westerners. I highly recommend it.

This study by Miranda Shaw is a must for everyone trult interested in the finer aspects of Tantric Buddhism. The author thoroughly explores the role of women in the development of vajrayana and comes to the justified conclusion that women's role has been much greater than is usually admitted by both Tibetan AND Western scholars. Rufus C. Camphausen